The best subsequent treatment for a fig orchard is, to a certain extent, an open question. It is probable that in most locations the best results will be obtained by mulching heavily near the tree with any available material that will hold moisture and keep down the weeds. Pine straw, marsh grass, or planer shavings answer the purpose. The dust from old charcoal pits is sometimes used, and on the coast a mulch of oyster shells is often seen. The slowly decomposing shells probably act to some extent as a fertilizer, since the fig is known to thrive best in strong lime soils. The middle of the rows can be kept clean by a shallow plowing and harrowing without disturbing the mulch and without injury to the roots protected by it. Winter protection of some kind should certainly be provided during the first two or three years, at least to the extent of mounding the dirt or mulch high about the base of the tree in the fall. Protecting the tops with old gunny sacks or pine branches will often prove of great advantage.
Pruning is seldom practiced, except so far as may be necessary to properly shape the young tree, and this is better done in summer by pinching. In case of a freeze, all injured wood should be promptly cut away. It is said that the size of the fruit can be greatly increased by judicious pruning, but, as before stated, it is seldom done.
Figs come into bearing very early. A thrifty growing cutting will often set some fruit the first season, but this seldom matures. When the tree does not winterkill, a little fruit may be expected the second season, and by the third the crop should be of some importance.
INSECT ENEMIES AND DISEASES.
The fig is usually spoken of as being comparatively free from insect enemies, and the literature of its diseases, of which there are a number, is scanty. It is probably true that in most localities it is less frequently injured from these causes than are other fruit trees.
Among the diseases reported from the South the one causing most widespread injury is doubtless root knot.
FIG-TREE BORER.
A longicorn beetle, Ptychodes vittatus, has caused considerable injury at some points in Louisiana and Mississippi by burrowing into the trunk and larger branches. In reply to inquiries regarding this insect, Director W. C. Stubbs, of the Louisiana Experiment Station, says:
The damage done in Louisiana is to a large extent conjectural. In our groves we have lost several trees temporarily, all being bored into by this borer. They, however, start up again quickly from the roots and soon replace the injured trees. We have had no remedy against this invasion except to dig it out while very young with a penknife. We have tried various insecticides without any apparent results.